The Alexander City Outlook

Remembering ‘Fessor Jim’

Alexander City has been blessed over the years to have what most people call “characters.” These are ladies or gentlemen who have memorable and unique personalities and traits which set them apart from the average person. I remember a good many of these wonderful people, and one in particular who flashes before me is Mr. James Madison Pearson, an educator known to everybody as “Fessor Jim.” He was from one of the old pioneer families for which Pearson Chapel was named. I don’t know where ‘Fessor Jim received his education, but he became an absolute paragon of book learning in Alex City.

He was schoolmaster, principal, and (in my day) superintendent of education. To all of us, he was eternal and had always been here in the position of educator “par excellence.” Everybody in town could claim to have gone to school under ‘Fessor Jim.

By the time I came along, ‘Fessor Jim must have been in his late seventies. But he was here, there and everywhere within the Alex City school system. He could exact discipline by simply being present. Nobody ever challenged him. His voice was soft but decisive, and he spoke with great authority, which was never disputed. This great oracle was a commanding presence in his black suit and tie and his crisp white shirt. His hair was snow white, and there was a look about him which reminded me of Abraham Lincoln. I remember that he wore shoes of soft leather and he walked so softly that you couldn’t hear his approach until it was too late.

‘Fessor Jim lived on North Central with his wife, “Miss” Emma and his two maiden daughters, Miss Annie Bell, a homemaker, and Miss Mattie Mae, a famous fourth grade teacher. Miss Mattie Mae, who was absolutely one of the best teachers I ever had, made her classes prepare elaborate birthday greeting cards for her father. His birthday was the same as George Washington – February 22 – and I was never quite sure who was the greater and more important influence on our country. He and “Miss” Emma had a son and three other daughters who had all married and moved away. ‘Fessor Jim was absolutely worshipped and adored by his family and great majority of the town.

During school assemblies, ‘Fessor Jim would lead the audience in his favorite song which went like this, “Love they neighbor, Live by labor, Would you prosper, That’s the way.” ‘Fessor Jim liked us to sing this in rounds. That meant that a third of the group would begin with the first phrase, then the second third would begin after the first group, then the third group would begin after the first and second groups. We would go through the song three times. This was fun and interesting, but it made such a racket that it was difficult to understand when everybody was singing. This song has always been connected in my mind with ‘Fessor Jim, and it is not a bad way to live.

Mr. Pearson was a pillar of the Methodist church and taught a Bible class with great regularity. There was (and my still be) the Jim Pearson Bible Class at the First United Methodist Church here in Alex City.

Jack Coley’s column on Alexander City will appear each Thursday in The Outlook.